In the Realm of the Senses

(Ai no korîda, Nagisha Oshima, Japan/France 1976, 109 min., 35mm, Japanese w/subtitles)

Period Dramas. Tokyo, 1930s. A former prostitute who now works as a maid in a hotel begins a passionate, obsessive sexual relationship with the hotel owner that renders everything around them irrelevant, even life itself. This visually stunning, explicit, and surprisingly nostalgic story was based on real events. It earned Oshima legal charges of obscenity and was even censored out of the 1976 New York Film Festival. For mature audiences only.